Technical Problems

Gameplay Questions

General Questions

General Help for Extreme Assault in MS-DOS®

General Help for Extreme Assault in Windows® 95

Reporting Errors to Blue Byte

Technical Problems

Problems with the CD ROM drive

"NO EXTREME ASSAULT CD found" even when I have the CD in the drive.

• If you are running the game from MS-DOS® (version 5.x or 6.x), this will happen if you do not have any CD ROM drivers loaded in your startup files. With the advent of Windows® 95, a lot of hardware manufacturers no longer supply DOS real mode drivers with their machines. If you call either the manufacturer of your computer or your CD ROM drive, you should be able to obtain DOS drivers for your CD ROM drive.
  
  
• If you are running the game in Windows® 95, then this could indicate a fault with the CD ROM drive or the CD ROM drive setup in Windows® 95. To check this, go into Device Manager (START\SETTINGS\SYSTEM) and go into the properties of your CD ROM drive. In the General section there is a device status that should say 'This device is working properly'. If it says anything different, call either the manufacturer of your computer or your CD ROM drive.
  
  
• The letter designating your CD ROM drive must be the next letter in the alphabet after the letter designating your hard drive where the game is installed. For example, if the game is installed on the C: drive then the CD must be in the D: drive. It's not possible to install a CD-burner or a RAM-disk between the drive and computer designations.

Sound Problems

Error message:
" SOUND_Init_sound_system:: AIL
INIT:: Cannot init sound system"

• This error will occur if you setup your sound card in Windows® 95 and then tried to play the game in DOS with no sound card drivers loaded. To fix this problem, call the manufacturer of your sound card and obtain some DOS drivers for your sound card.
  
  
• Sound problems will very likely occur if the game is installed and setup using one of the operating systems (Win 95 or DOS), and then played under the other. This occurs because the DMA and IRQ values assigned to the card can be different under DOS and WIN 95. This can be fixed by choosing your operating system, restarting the sound setup, and then playing the game under the same operating system.

Sound cannot be setup properly and subsequent attempts to start game in DOS crash.

• Many sound cards need to be setup by special drivers and commands in the autoexec and config files. If these files are missing, then the sound card may not be setup correctly and this may cause Extreme Assault to crash during startup. Please check with the sound card manufacturer to see which drivers need to be loaded.

Sound becomes jumpy under Windows® 95.

• Restart the game after restarting Windows® 95.
  
  
• This can also be caused by the IRQ and DMA settings of sound card not being known by the BIOS setup, as used by an ISA bus. This only occurs on machines with PCI boards. To cure the problem you may need to edit the BIOS settings, and inform the BIOS that those values are in use by an ISA card. Please refer to your computer manufacturer for instructions on how to do this.

Problems with Ensoniq Sound Scape sound cards.

• Use the sound card in Sound Blaster emulation mode. This will fix the problem.

Graphics and VESA problems

When the game starts I get a blank screen with music and sound effects in the background.

• This occurs when the graphics resolution utility has not been run. The game is trying to run using a resolution that your graphics card cannot handle. To resolve the problem, run the graphics resolution test from the game's setup screen so that the game knows which screen resolutions your graphics card can handle.
  
  
• If you have performed the graphics resolution utility and are running Windows® 95, shut down the machine and restart it in DOS mode. If the game then runs fine, you will need to contact the manufacturer of your graphics card for the latest Windows® 95 drivers.
  
  
• If you are running any graphics utilities such as Display Doctor, disable them and then run the graphics resolution utility. Once you have done this try loading the game again.

Why is there a high resolution and a low resolution selected in the resolution setup screen?

• This is so you can easily switch between hi-res and lo-res while playing the game without going back to the Options Menu. To switch between hi-res and lo-res during the game press the F5 key.

Vesa Driver Problems

• First make sure you have the very latest video and vesa drivers from the manufacturer of your video card. In almost every case it is a problem with not having the absolute latest vesa driver. You can also try to using the universal vesa driver available on the Internet.
  
  
• If you are using a newer version of the UniVbe driver, anything after version 5.1, try the following switch while loading the driver: uvconfig -L0 -V (this disables the linear frame buffer). If this does not work, try using an older driver. Some problems have been reported with the newer version of this program.

Graphics problems with Matrox Millenium graphics cards.

• If you own a Matrox video card please contact Matrox to get the latest flash BIOS upgrade on disk (currently version 2.70). You can also get it electronically from CompuServe on their ftp site at ftp.matrox.com in the /pub/mga/millennium directory.

Graphics problems with the Stingray 128/3D.

• The Stingray 128/3D is likewise having difficulties with the game. The next release of the BIOS and drivers should fix this problem.

Graphics problems with 3Dfx on Orchid Righteous 3D.

• Type "set SST_SCREENREFRESH=60" at the DOS-prompt.

Controller Problems

Cannot change any of the control actions in the controls setup screen.

• To change any of the keyboard/joystick functions in the controls setup screen, Customize must be selected as the control type at the top of the screen.

Can only change 12 of the options in the controls setup screen.

• There is an arrow pointing downwards in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. If you click on this arrow it will reveal more options that you can change.

I have a ThrustMaster joystick and have chosen 4 button joystick from the controls setup, but the game won't recognize my Hat Switch.

• The game has been coded to directly support the ThrustMaster joysticks. You will find a ThrustMaster option when you choose your joystick. If you choose this option and then configure the joystick, your Hat Switch will be recognized.

Joystick isn't detected in DOS mode.

• This will happen if you don't have any sound card drivers loaded in DOS. The drivers are needed to enable the joystick port. To resolve this, consult your sound card manufacturer and obtain the latest MS-DOS® drivers for your sound card.

General Problems

"Error 002 The Registry On This Machine is Damaged"

• This error is not serious so don't worry. All this means is that the file which links the autorun on the CD to the game files on your hard drive, has become corrupt. The easiest way around this is to play the game directly from the hard drive using the Windows® Explorer. To do this, open Windows® Explorer and go into the directory that you installed the game to (the default is C:\Bluebyte\Extreme). Once you are in the game's directory, double click on the Start.bat file to run the game.
  
  
• If you are an experienced user of Windows® 95 you can delete the Extreme Assault entry from the registry. This will allow you to re-install the game and reset the corrupt registry entry.

PLEASE NOTE THAT EDITING YOUR SYSTEM'S REGISTRY CAN LEAVE YOUR COMPUTER IN A STATE WHERE IT CAN NO LONGER BE STARTED IF IT IS NOT DONE CORRECTLY. IF THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION DOES NOT EXACTLY MATCH WHAT IS ON YOUR SYSTEM, THEN STOP. BLUE BYTE ASSUMES NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGE DONE TO YOUR SYSTEM WHEN EDITING THE REGISTRY.

To delete Extreme Assault from your registry do the following:

1. Remove the Extreme Assault CD from the CD ROM drive.

2. Go the to the Windows® 95 Start Menu and click on Run.

3. Type Regedit and then click on OK.

4. Click on the + next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

5. Click on the + next to SOFTWARE.

6. Click on the + next to BLUE_BYTE.

7. Click on the EXTREME_E folder once with the left mouse button.

8. Press the Delete key on your keyboard.

9. A Confirm Key Delete dialogue box will appear, click on Yes.

10. Close the registry editor by clicking on the x in the top right corner.

The next time you insert the CD, the Blue Byte setup screen will appear allowing you to re-install the game. The re-installation will restore the registry entry. If you have any saved games that you wish to keep, copy the savegame folder in the C:\Bluebyte\Extreme directory to another destination and then copy it back into the C:\Bluebyte\Extreme directory after you have re-installed the game.

The Autorun window keeps appearing while playing Extreme Assault.

• To turn off the Autorun feature in Windows® 95, go into the Device Manager (START/SETTINGS/SYSTEM) and then go into the properties of the CD ROM drive. Click on Settings and then remove the tick mark next to Auto insert notification. When you have done this, leave Device Manager and restart your computer. To load the game, Double click on your CD ROM drive and then choose start as normal.

The game crashes when put to the Windows® 95 background.

• The game has been designed so that it will run under Windows® 95, but it is in fact a DOS based application. Since the game was designed to run in it's own environment, putting it to the Windows® 95 background will crash the game.

Extreme Assault doesn't appear in the Windows® 95 Start Menu.

• The game doesn't leave an entry in the Start Menu because it is a DOS based application and not a Windows® 95 only game. The autorun feature was put into the game, however, so it is still very easy to start the game.
  
  
• You can make a shortcut to the game which will stay on your Windows® 95 desktop. This will allow you to load the game without having to use Autorun or go into the game's directory. If you are unsure on how to make a shortcut to an application, check the Windows® 95 help for more details.

The game crashes when returning from a fight or even when you start the game, using a Toshiba 8 speed CD-ROM drive.

• Please report the error, together with details of your computer system to Blue Byte's technical support personnel.

The game will not start, or crashes at the beginning or the end of a mission.

• This could indicate a problem with either the sound card or the CD ROM drive. Please see the general help sections at the end of this document.

If none of the above solutions has solved your problem, please check your system by reading the General Help sections at the end of this document.

Gameplay Questions

Multi-Player

The game stops after 2 kills, even though you have selected more kills or a time limit.

• This will happen if one or more of the players doesn't have the Extreme Assault CD in their CD ROM drive. The only way to resolve this is to make sure that everybody who is playing has a copy of the game in their drive.

Do the pilot difficulty levels have any bearing on the Network Play, i.e. if I chose the easy pilot, would I be stronger?

• The pilot that you choose for the Network Play doesn't have any bearing on your strength in the game.

Which vehicle is stronger in the Network Play, the T1 or the Sioux AH-23?

• The T1 has slightly stronger armor and fire power, and starts with 2 missiles after each time it has been killed. The Sioux, however, has vastly superior maneuverability compensating for its marginally weaker weapons systems. The vehicles are better suited for some arenas than others, so the best thing to do is to experiment with the vehicles and find out which vehicle works better where.

How do I play Extreme Assault over the Internet?

• The game can be played over the Internet via Kali or Mplayer. To use either of these services, you must first download the relevant software from their web sites. For Kali go www.kali.net and for Mplayer go to www.mplayer.com. You will find all the relevant information for setting up the software needed to use these on-line services within the web sites themselves. Once the software has been setup, you can play Extreme Assault over the Internet. If you are unsure on how to use the on-line gaming sites, check out the web site of the service you are using.

Single Player

Picked up a new weapon in the game but it hasn't been displayed on the screen.

• Most of the weapons that you pick up in the game are upgrades to increase the strength of your current weapons. They are not brand new weapons which will act differently. The only exception to this is in Operation Area 3 where you can obtain the Fire Flash Cannon.

In Operation Area 1: Mission 2, I get the message "Mission Failed" but I don't know why.

• The mission objective is to stop the trucks before they pass the two gun turrets. If any of the truck pass the gun turrets, you fail the mission.

In Operation Area 1: Mission 4, I get the message "Mission Failed" but I don't know why.

• The first objective of the mission is to destroy all enemy units before the village is destroyed. If all the buildings in the main part of the village are destroyed then the mission is over.

In Operation Area 1: Mission 5, I get the message "Mission Failed" but I don't know why.

• The mission objective is to stop the convoy reaching the village. If the convoy reaches the village, you fail the mission.

I can't find my way through the security system on Operation Area 3: Mission 7.

• Leave the cavern through the tunnel and go up the first exit that appears. Turn 90° to the right and when it is safe, go down the tunnel that faces you. Go down the first exit that appears and turn 90° to the left and then head down the tunnel. Go up the first exit that you come to and then wait until both sets of spikes have passed beneath you. When they have, go down the tunnel and the rest should be straight forward.

In Operation Area 3: Mission 8, I keep getting the message "Mission Failed" but I don't know why.

• If the team of scientists (the blue circle on the radar) get destroyed at the rendezvous point, you fail the mission.

I've picked up the Fire Flash Cannon in Operation Area 3: Mission 9, but I don't know what to do next.

• Make your way to the exit that you came out of at the end of Mission 7. Go through the passage and then go down the first tunnel on the right. Follow this tunnel, go down the first exit and keep going until you come to another exit on the floor. Turn 90° to the right and then follow the tunnel until you come to another exit in the floor. Go down and turn 90° to the left. Wait until the spikes pass below you and then go to the end of the tunnel to meet the end of level boss.

I have trouble hitting targets with the razor gun.

• It is important to lock onto a target before firing or you will be wasting ammunition. Get the target in the green circular target area and press the target select key you setup in Controls Setup. You will see a yellow circle and vertical bar next to the target you have just selected. When the target is in range you will hear a constant, high pitched tone and see a red diamond around the target. Fire until the yellow bar is gone; it represents the targets shield level.

Drifting

• There is an option that will allow you to drift (or slide) out of your opponents line of fire. It is important to master this maneuver to increase your life expectancy. Using the default keys you can press and hold the ALT key and then use the RIGHT and LEFT ARROW keys to drift left and right respectively. (See page 12 of the manual for details.)

Turbo

• There are areas in the game that have small white slits on the ground. Flying or driving over these will double your speed for a few seconds. Use this time to get away from anyone chasing you or to get over to that shield power-up. Be careful though; if you hit things while in turbo mode your chances of suffering a fatal collision are much greater.

Shooting Down Missiles

• Using the Razor Gun you can shoot down incoming missiles. It takes some practice, but it can save you from taking a lot of damage, especially later in the game.

Destroyed Targets and Walls

• When many objects are destroyed they leave behind wreckage which will damage your vehicle if you hit it. Walls will also cause damage if you hit them while moving too fast. Watch out for the canyon walls while dodging enemy fire in the canyon levels.

Where's the Tank?

• The T1 battle tank first appears in Operation Area 4: Mission 1.

Tank Movement

• The T1 is a ground vehicle that can have troubles getting up steep hills and mountains. Also, if it's sidways on a steep incline, it might roll over which would damage the tank.

Difficulties and Missions

• When you select a pilot it is important to note that this also selects the game's difficulty and which missions you can play. On EASY you can only play Operation Area 1 and 2; on NORMAL you can play area's 1,2,3 and 4. The last two difficulties, HARD and EXTREME allow you access to the full game, all 6 areas.

General Questions About Extreme Assault and the Future

Why set limitations and height restrictions?

• Due to the complexity of the 3D engine in Extreme Assault, there had to be realistic borders in the game or the speed and detail would suffer. Modern attack helicopters have height limitations due to their design and mission parameters, as do the vehicles in Extreme Assault.
  
  
• It is also important to note that without boundaries it would become extremely easy to get lost or out of the mission area and difficult to return to fulfill your mission goals.

Why use strong language?

• Extreme Assault is designed for a more mature audience. The characters portrayed in the game act realistically to the situations they encounter.

Plans for the Future

Support for other platforms?

• We currently only develop for the IBM PC platform. Depending on market demands this could change, keep an eye out for information on our web pages.

Will there be a Mission CD?

• There are currently no plans for any expansion packs for Extreme Assault. We always welcome feedback, and if there is enough demand, it is possible we could add something like this to our future line-up.

General Help for Extreme Assault in MS-DOS®

• Ensure that you are using a genuine Microsoft mouse driver, not a third party mouse driver such as Logitech or Genius. If you do not have a Microsoft mouse driver you can download one from the Microsoft BBS. When you go through the login screens choose:

F - File sections

1 - Win3x, MS-DOS, Win95

5 - MS-DOS

1 - AppNotes

The file should be called MOUSE.COM

If you don't have Internet/BBS access you can call Microsoft directly to obtain a mouse driver. See your Microsoft documentation for further details on how to contact them.

• Try doing a thorough scandisk on your hard-drive and then defrag the hard-drive. Once you have done this and the hard-drive is fully optimized, reinstall the game. If you are unsure on how to use scandisk and defrag, check your MS-DOS® documentation for more details. PLEASE NOTE THAT REINSTALLING THE GAME WILL LOSE YOUR SAVED GAMES. If you go into the directory where you installed the game, you will a find your saved games in a sub-directory called savegame. If you copy this sub-directory to another directory and then copy it back into the fresh installation, you will be able to keep your saved games.
  
  
• You may experience problems if you are not using a third party memory manager such QEMM or QEMM386. If you are running a third party memory manager, change it to EMM386.EXE with the NOEMS switch (see your DOS manual for more details). If you still experience problems after this, try running your system from a bootdisk without any memory managers at all.
  
  
• Occasionally DOS drivers that are loaded into memory can conflict with games and cause problems. If you experience any problems, the best thing to do is to make a boot disk. To make a boot disk do the following:

a) Place a blank floppy disk which is not write protected in the a: drive.

b) From the c: prompt type - format a: /s [ENTER]

c) From the c: prompt type - copy autoexec.bat a: [ENTER]

d) From the c: prompt type - copy config.sys a: [ENTER]

e) To edit your autoexec.bat, from the a: prompt type - edit autoexec.bat [ENTER]

f) To edit your config.sys, from the a: prompt type - edit config.sys [ENTER]

Only the mouse, sound and CD ROM drivers need to be loaded for the game to run. On your boot disk, remove any other drivers (including your memory managers) by typing REM [SPACE] at the beginning of the line which is to be removed. If you are unsure what driver is for which device in your system, call the manufacturer of your computer.

• If you experience any memory problems or memory errors, make a boot disk with the minimum drivers loaded. Follow the instructions in the previous section.
  
  
• If you are running any TSR's such as virus checkers in the background, disable them before running the game. They can conflict with programs and cause problems.
  
  
• Try running the game with No Midi and No Digital Audio installed in the sound setup for the game. This will determine whether or not the sound card or the sound card drivers are causing any problems. If the sound card is causing problems then get in touch with the manufacturer of the card. Find out what sound card you have before attempting the sound setup, because if you choose the wrong card then problems will almost definitely occur (anything from no sound in the game to crashes and hang ups).
  
  
• Check that you are running the game from the hard drive and not from the CD. Extreme Assault needs to write information to the hard-drive so if it is started from the CD, errors will occur. To run the game from the hard drive you need to use the DOS command cd (change directory). If you don't know how to use this command, look at your system documentation for further details.
  
  
• Check that the CD is not dirty. Clean the CD with a lint free cloth, using gentle straight strokes from the inside of the CD to the outer edge.

General Help for Extreme Assault in Windows® 95

• Ensure that you have the latest drivers for your hardware, especially for the graphics card and the sound card. The easiest way to do this is to go the web pages of the manufacturers of your hardware and check the drivers in their updates section against the drivers you are presently running.
  
  
• Go to the CONTROL PANEL and double click the SYSTEM icon. Choose DEVICE MANAGER and you will see a list of all the different types of hardware you have in your machine. Expand all the devices by clicking on the + next to each device. If you see an x ? or a ! on any of the devices, that means Windows® 95 has detected a problem with the device. Call the manufacturer of any device that has a problem. Unfortunately, Windows® 95 doesn't notice every problem when it occurs. Once you have expanded all the devices, systematically check the properties of each device. Most devices have a tab called General and Resources in them. In the General page check the Device Status. It should say 'this device is working properly'. If it doesn't, call the manufacturer of the device. In the Resources page there is a conflicting device list. This should say 'no conflicts'. Again if it doesn't, call the relevant manufacturer.
  
  
• Ensure you are running a Microsoft mouse driver. You can check by going into DEVICE MANAGER and into MOUSE. If it doesn't say Standard PS/2 Mouse, Standard Serial Mouse, Microsoft PS/2 Port Mouse or Microsoft Serial Mouse then you are not using a Microsoft mouse driver. Go into the properties of your mouse, click on driver and then change the driver. Choose the relevant standard mouse type that you have (PS/2 or Serial) and install that instead.
  
  
• If you are using anything that will switch the game to the Windows® 95 background (such as a screen saver or a scandisk that activates when the machine is idle) turn them off. These can interfere with the game and on occasions cause it to crash.
  
  
• Make sure that you are not running any DOS drivers in your config.sys and autoexec.bat. They will use up your system's resources and in some cases actually conflict with Windows® 95. If you require any DOS drivers (for example to run applications when in DOS mode) you will find a DOS shortcut in the WINDOWS directory called 'exit to dos'. Go into the properties of this file and then into PROGRAM/ADVANCED. Click on MS-DOS mode and then specify a new MS-DOS configuration. You can then enter your current autoexec.bat and config.sys in the relevant boxes. Once you have done this, type REM [SPACE] at the beginning of each line in your current autoexec.bat and config.sys to remove them from the Windows® 95 start-up. Next time you boot your computer up, the DOS drivers won't be loaded, leaving your system with more free resources.
  
  
• Ensure that Windows® 95 has set up your graphics card correctly. Go into DEVICE MANAGER and expand the heading 'display adapters'. Check that the card described is the card you actually have in your computer. You should be able to do this with the documentation you got with the computer. If the driver is just described as S3 then it is definitely wrong, because S3 is a chipset manufacturer and not a graphics card manufacturer. To change the driver you will need to know what graphics card you have. Once you have found out (either from the computer manufacturer or from the computer's documentation) download the latest driver for that card and use the Microsoft help facility to install the correct driver.
  
  
• Try running a thorough scandisk on your hard-drive and then run defrag. Once your hard-drive has been optimized, reinstall the game. If you are unsure on how to use either scandisk or defrag, check the Windows® 95 help. PLEASE NOTE THAT REINSTALLING THE GAME WILL LOSE YOUR SAVED GAMES. To keep your saved games, go into the directory where you installed the game and you will find your saved games in a folder called savegame. If you copy this folder to another destination and then copy them back into the fresh installation, you will be able to keep your saved games.
  
  
• Try running the game with No Midi and No Digital Audio installed in the sound setup for the game. This will determine whether or not the sound card or the sound card drivers are causing any problems. If the sound card is causing problems then get in touch with the manufacturer of the card. Find out what sound card you have before attempting the sound setup, because if you choose the wrong card then problems will almost definitely occur (anything from no sound in the game to crashes and hang ups).
  
  
• If the game doesn't work in Windows® 95, try it in DOS mode (START\SHUTDOWN\ RESTART IN MS-DOS MODE) and see what the outcome is.
  
  
• Check that the CD is not dirty. Clean the CD with a lint free cloth, using gentle straight strokes from the inside of the CD to the outer edge.

Virus on Extreme Assault?

If you are using an older version of the virus detection program McAfee, you might get a false indication that there is a virus on your Extreme Assault CD. Blue Byte would like to assure you that there is no virus on the CD. It is simply a WAV file that has a similar byte pattern. If you use the latest version of McAfee, no virus will be reported. You can find the latest update at http://www.mcafee.com.

Reporting Errors to Blue Byte

If you are still having problems with the game after trying everything we suggested, please report the problem to the nearest Blue Byte office.

U.S. Phone: (847) 995-9981, between 8:30 AM and 5:00 PM Central Time.

U.K. Phone: +44 (0) 1604-259090 between 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM U.K. Time.

We will need to know all the details of your computer, the version number of the game and the details of the problem before we can help you. The version number of your game can be found in the first screen of the game, on the top left hand side.

As a guide for your computer details, we will need to know the make and model (or version number) of the following:

• Sound card
• Graphics card
• CD-ROM
• Processor
• Amount of RAM
• Mouse driver
• Operating system